The heir to Bangladesh’s longtime ruling family and leader of the country’s powerful opposition, Tarique Rahman, has returned to the country after nearly 17 years in exile, his party said.

Rahman, 60, an aspiring prime minister who has lived in London since he fled Bangladesh in 2008 over what he called politically motivated persecution, arrived in Dhaka on Thursday.

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Acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), he is expected to take the reins from his ailing mother, 80-year-old former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters lined ​the route from the capital’s airport to the reception venue, waving party ‍flags and carrying placards, banners and flowers, while chanting slogans welcoming Rahman, as senior BNP leaders received him at the airport under tight security.

Dressed in a light grey, finely chequered blazer over a crisp white shirt, Rahman waved to the crowd with a smile.

The BNP earlier said it aims to gather up to five million supporters in the capital to welcome Rahman, for what it called an “unprecedented” mobilisation.

Rahman is widely viewed as the prime ministerial frontrunner in February’s general election.

His arrival comes as the BNP regains momentum – after the 2024 ouster of longtime leader Sheikh Hasina.

Shifting political landscape

Rahman had been unable to return to Bangladesh while facing multiple criminal cases at home.

He was convicted in absentia on charges that included money laundering and in a case linked to an alleged plot to assassinate Hasina, but the rulings were overturned after Hasina was ‌ousted last year in a student-led uprising, clearing the legal barriers to his return.

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His homecoming also carries personal urgency, with Khaleda Zia seriously ill for months. Party officials said Rahman would travel from the airport to a reception ‌venue before visiting his mother.

The political landscape has shifted sharply since Hasina’s removal from power, ending decades in which she and Khaleda ‌Zia largely alternated in office.

A December survey by the United States-based ⁠International Republican Institute suggested the BNP is on course to win the largest number of parliamentary seats, with the Jamaat-e-Islami party also in the race.

Hasina’s Awami League party, which has been barred from the election, has ‌threatened unrest that some fear could disrupt the vote.

Bangladesh is heading to the polls under an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. While authorities have pledged a free and ‍peaceful election, recent attacks on media outlets and sporadic violence have raised concerns, making Rahman’s return a defining moment for the BNP and the country’s fragile political transition.